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After an exceptionally long and warm summer, it will soon be time to pack away the picnic blanket in parts of northern Sweden, where autumn has already arrived, according to meteorologists.

In some of the mountainous parts of Norrland, temperatures have dropped to the level that Sweden defines as heralding the start of autumn; in the town and ski resort Hemavan, Västerbotten, summer officially ended on August 16th.

"We often tend to see around the middle of August that meteorological autumn comes to the mountain chains, and towards the end of August, to larger parts of Lappland," said SMHI meteorologist Alexandra Ohlsson.

The definition for meteorological autumn is that the average daytime temperature stays below an average of 10C for five consecutive days. Winter will be here when they drop below an average of 0C, meaning that different parts of the country have vastly different season lengths -- some towns even miss a season altogether.

In a typical year, autumn arrives to Kiruna around August 16th, to Östersund around September 5th, but takes longer to reach the southern areas. In Stockholm, the average start of autumn comes on September 29th while Malmö residents can usually hold on to meteorological summer until October 12th.

Over the weekend, a cold front swept in over Sweden from Denmark, bringing temperatures down across the entire country.

On Friday morning, showers are forecast across central Norrland, with thunder a possibility. In the very far north, some areas might even experience frost overnight.

The cold front meanwhile will extend down across the whole country, and it's likely to rain in Götaland.

Sunnier weather is expected for the weekend, though temperatures will still be much lower than they have been in recent weeks, with highs of 20C forecast for the south, and showers possible in parts of Svealand.